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Thursday, October 29, 2015

6th Annual Broke & Bookish Secret Santa

Hello everyone!!! Can you believe it?? SIXTH SECRET SANTA. We've had such a great time hosting this over the past 5 years and are SO ready for year 6 after last year which was a record year with 300+ participants.

Please only sign up if you are truly interested
and are committed to sending off a package (on time). No seriously, stop and think before you sign up. Can you commit to this? We have only had a few
problems in the past 5 years but I'd like to not have to spend my time
chasing people down -- seriously. It's a bummer for the person who
doesn't get a package and a bummer for me to have to hunt you down for
months after.

*Non-US/Can people who are wondering where they would have to ship to if nobody from their country signed up: so far we have people signed up from Singapore, Japan, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, France, UK, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia. We have interest from the Phillipines.

Things You Need To Do

1. Send an email to TBTBSecretSanta (at) gmail (dot) com answering the following questions BEFORE November 13th with the answers to the following questions:

*BEFORE November 13th means 11:59pm EST on the
12th though if they slip in the wee hours of the morning while I'm
sleeping I'm okay but please don't yell at me when you are past the deadline any later when I'm pairing and I say no...I have extended it too many times in the past but with 300+ participants last year I have to shut it down sometime, sorry)

Full Name & Address

Blog URL (also any other social media accounts you might want to share to help your secret Santa out)

List 10-15 books you'd like to read or a link to a wishlist (please mix
it up with older and new releases -- aka maybe things that aren't just
available in hardcover right now). DO NOT ASK FOR ARCS please. If your
SS wants to throw some in there because they saw it on your Goodreads or
something that's fine but once we had someone ask for mostly ARCs.

List of your bookish preferences (a few fave authors, your fave
genres, things you WILL NOT READ, does not prefer used books, prefer hardback or paperback, if you are
okay with them not getting you something on your wishlist if they think
you will like it etc.)

Please give a few things you like or things about yourself (to help with your goodie). See below for examples in the guidelines.

Would you be able to send internationally if needed? Please answer
with:

A. Yes, I would actually prefer to send and receive internationalyB. No, I cannot. C. Would prefer not to but will if needed

(if you are
outside of US and Canada just know I can't guarantee that you will get
somewhere even remotely close to you. I try to work it geographically
for you but it all depends on who signs up and where they are from. That said we typically have a decent number of signups from England and Australia).

Have you participated in this Secret Santa before or is this your first time?

Which closely resembles what kind of package you are wanting to
send out (I will be pairing people with similar answers):a) 1 book and a small gift/candyb) 1-2 books and a couple goodiesc) 2-3 books and goodies

2. When you receive your Secret Santa, go play Santa and buy your
prezzies. Send it out no later than December 15th. The
earlier the better as the mail is always slow during the holiday season.

3. After
you send off your package, please email TBTBSecretSanta (at) gmail
(dot) com letting us know you sent it off WITH DELIVERY CONFIRMATION/TRACKING
(changing it this year, sorry!).
Email us again when you receive your package. (Unless there are
questions, I will not be responding to these emails due to time but will
filing them away). If you have not received
your package by January 1st please then email us and I will attempt to
contact your Secret Santa. Please understand I will try my damndest to
work it out but there is only so much I can do in the event someone
decides to be naughty. Karma is a biotch though..maybe they'll get their
toes run over by Santa's sleigh.

4. FOR EXTRA FUN: We are going to use the hashtag #TBTBSanta again on Twitter & Instagram for this
event! We'd love to hear and see through pictures and tweets your entire
process -- maybe a sneak peek of your Secret Santa skills in action (a
picture of something you are sending, the wrapped picture, the box) and
we'd LOVE to see your goodies as you get them!

Some guidelines:

* Books
can be new or used. Use your discretion as far as used books go but
please be kind and don't send something you wouldn't want to receive.
They should be in VERY good condition -- like you can't even tell if it was read.

* If you aren't sure what kinds of things to add for goodies peruse the #TBTBsanta thread to see pictures of packages from last year. Lots of good ideas that will probably help you!

* Suggestions for things to add that could be helpful to tell your Secret Santa for the little gift:
music you love, if you celebrate Christmas, hobbies you
have, things you will not eat/are allergic to, smells or flavors you do not like, shows you watch/favorite movies, things you collect, any fandoms you are part of, would
love something native to where your Secret Santa lives, coffee/tea you like, favorite colors, foods you love, favorite animals, things you are obsessed with, etc. etc. Also maybe if you have an e-reader and would
be willing to get ebooks or a gift card. Just really anything relevant to your interests that could help
them.

* If you are from outside the US or Canada, be aware that you might
have to send internationally due to the fact that there are
significantly more US participants and we may not be able to pair you up
with someone closer.

* Be sure to thank your Secret Santa when you receive your package via social media or reach out to me for their email!

* Feel free to grab the button to put on your sidebar or make your own!

I personally of course would have no objection to being matched to a teen... Especially since I have TONS of YA books on my bookshelf that are brand new and not ever read that I had ended up replacing as ebooks.

I was just wondering, how many people from UK/Europe usually sign up? I mean, I would have no problem being paired with someone from US or Australia or even somewhere far-off but being paired with someone within Europe would mean less money for shipping and more money for books and extra goodies. I was just like to know what my chances are, if possible :)

Oh oh oh. Can I get paired up with you? haha I can't even remember the names of the Norwegian Candies I got when I was over there a few years ago but they were fantastic! Whoever you send to (if you decide to) will be very luck haha

We have had a couple people from the Phillipines join in the past! Right now we have non-US/can signups from Australia, Singapore and UK. But obviously signups haven't even been open 24 hours so I know we will get more. If you want to tweet something about wanting other people from Philippines joining I can RT it. Or maybe I can edit my post and include signups we have from different countries or interest we have so people who are considering can see?

It's up to you know you want to do it! If you know them you can use clues or something creative to tell them or if you want to just want to reveal in the card...up to you! I've seen it done all sorts of ways!

Full Disclosure:

We are Amazon Affiliates! What does this mean?

Simply put, if you see a book on our blog that strikes your fancy and you would like to buy it, you can click on the link and it will take you to Amazon to purchase it. A percentage of that sale comes back to the folks here at The Broke and Bookish so that we can host awesome giveaways and afford shipping costs. We are so appreciative of those of you who support us through this program. We love to give back to our readers, but don't always have the extra money to do so, seeing as how we are broke college students!